Hetty Wesley eBook

“Ah!” Mr. Wesley cleared his throat.
“There is no reason, Mr. Wright, why we should
protract a business which (as you may guess) must
needs be extremely painful to some of us here.
I have made inquiries about you and find that, though
not well-to-do, you bear the reputation of an honest
man, even a kind one. It appears that at great
cost to yourself you have made provision for an aged
father, going (I am told) well beyond the strict limits
of a son’s duty. Filial obedience—­”
The Rector’s eyes here fell upon Hetty and he
checked himself. “But I will not enlarge
upon that. You ask to marry my daughter.
She is in no position to decline your offer, but
must rather accept it and with thanks, in humility.
As her father I commend her to your love and forbearance.”

There was silence for a while. Mr. Wright lifted
his head: and now his culprit’s look had
vanished and in its place was one of genuine earnestness.

“I thank ye, sir,” he said; “but,
if ’tis no liberty, I’d like to hear what
Miss Hetty says.” Hetty, too, lifted her
eyes and for the first time since entering rested
them on the man who was to be her husband. Mrs.
Wesley saw how they blenched and how she compelled
them to steadiness; and turned her own away.

“Sir,” said Hetty, “you have heard
my father. Although he has not chosen to tell
you, I am bound; and must answer under my bond unless
he release me.”

“For your salvation, as I most firmly believe,
I refuse to release you,” said the Rector.

“Then, sir,” she continued, still with
her eyes on William Wright, “under my bond I
will answer you. If, as I think, those who marry
without love sin against God and themselves, my father
is driving out sin by sin. I cannot love you:
but what I do under force I will do with an honest
wish to please. I thank you for stooping to one
whom her parents cast out. I shall remember
my unworthiness all the more because you have overlooked
it. You are all strange to me. Just now
I shrink from you. But you at least see something
left in me to value. Noble or base your feeling
may be: it is something which these two, my parents
who begat me, have not. I will try to think it
noble—­to thank you for it all my days—­to
be a good wife.”

She held out her hand. As Mr. Wright extended
his, coarse and not too clean, she touched it with
her finger-tips and faced her father, waiting his
word of dismissal.

But the Rector was looking at his wife. For
a moment he hesitated; then, stepping forward, drew
her arm within his, and the pair left the room together.

CHAPTER X.

William Wright stared at the door as it closed upon
them. Hetty did not stir. To reach it
she must pass him. She stood by the writing-table,
her profile turned to him, her body bent with a great
shame; suffering anguish, yet with an indignant pride
holding it down and driving it inward as she repressed
her bosom’s rise and fall. Even a callous
man must have pitied her; and William Wright, though
a vulgar man, was by no means a callous one.